BART cop recalled as 'gentle giant' as a kid

THE BART SHOOTING

Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PST, Saturday, January 10, 2009

The BART police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man on a station platform on New Year's Day had lived a quiet, unremarkable life without apparent troubles before videos of the shooting hit the national airwaves.

Johannes Mehserle, 27, resigned from the BART police force Wednesday, avoiding an interview with internal affairs investigators who were trying to obtain his statement about why he shot Oscar Grant as the 22-year-old supermarket worker lay facedown at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland.

Mehserle, who grew up in the city of Napa, was a 2000 graduate of New Technology High School there and a 2006 graduate of Napa Valley College Criminal Justice Training Center.

Until recently, he lived with his girlfriend in Lafayette. She recently gave birth to their first child.

Mehserle had worked for the BART police for about two years.

According to a family friend, Mehserle's parents have left their home in Napa because of death threats stemming from the BART incident.

Napa County Supervisor Bill Dodd told the Napa Valley Register that he has known the Mehserle family since Johannes Mehserle was a youngster who played basketball for St. John the Baptist Catholic School. Dodd coached the boy on an all-star basketball team that traveled to Minnesota for a tournament.

"Johannes' family was always there at his side cheering him on," Dodd told the newspaper, adding that Johannes was bigger than the other players.

"I called him the gentle giant," Dodd said. "He is a very kind, caring and gentle person."

Dodd described the BART incident as devastating for Johannes and his family. "Both families have suffered," he said. "One has lost a loved one, and Johannes will have to face what happened every day of his life."

Police academy training

Damien Sandoval, program director of the Napa Valley College Criminal Justice Training Center, said Mehserle graduated from the 22-week police academy, where instruction includes how to use force and when to use weapons such as guns, batons, Tasers and pepper spray.

"As for firearms, we provide 72 hours of training," Sandoval said. "We put the gun in their hand, tell them when and how to use it."

He said Mehserle would have received additional training from the BART police force.

At the police academy, Mehserle signed a form prohibiting disclosure of information about his transcript or activities there.

Catholic school, then public

"He was just kind of hanging in there," said Katy Dunlap, assistant principal at Vintage. "He was taking some college prep classes but had problems with math. He did all right in science and English. He wasn't a terrible student by any means. He was very average."

Dunlap said she had access only to Mehserle's transcript and that records of any disciplinary problems were too old to retrieve.

Mehserle spent his junior and senior years at New Technology High School, which attracts students interested in the sciences and technology careers as well as students who value small classes.

Howard Mahoney, the school's principal, said Mehserle's teachers no longer work there.

"The two people who did know him just barely knew him and said he was a nice enough student," Mahoney said. "He graduated in good standing and moved on. We really don't know too much about him aside from that.

"We're sorry about this whole incident, and our hearts go out to the families," Mahoney said.